10 actors who became accidental stars
Actors find their big breaks in countless different ways. Many find their start in independent features, with no idea that their performances will lead to fruitful career opportunities. On the other hand, some do whatever it takes to secure an acting job, whether that means taking on low-paying or undesirable roles to boost their chances of success. The film industry is a cutthroat business, and many people never fulfil their dreams of becoming a star.
Meanwhile, some actors can thank their genes for their careers, with nepotism becoming a huge player in the landscape of Hollywood. However, many of the most iconic and successful actors of all time have stumbled into the profession by chance, never intending to become high-profile stars. Some of Hollywood’s most beloved stars have never taken a single acting class, proving that sometimes, acting is something naturally possessed by certain talented individuals.
Icons of Hollywood’s Golden Age, such as Lana Turner and Marilyn Monroe, were scouted for their looks before it became apparent that they could also act, sing and dance. These women became some of America’s most recognisable faces, yet their discoveries were the result of complete chance. Moreover, current actors like Chloë Sevigny, Jason Statham and Johnny Depp never meant to fall into acting, yet have proved to excel in their new method of artistic expression.
From one of the western genre’s biggest stars, John Wayne, to cinema’s highest-grossing action heroine, Jennifer Lawrence, here are ten actors who became accidental stars.
10 actors who became accidental stars:
Charlize Theron
Born in South Africa, Theron grew up speaking Afrikaans with no desire to become a Hollywood star. Instead, she pursued dancing before winning a one-year modelling contract and moving to Italy. After she modelled in Europe, Theron and her mother moved to the United States, and she attended New York’s Joffrey Ballet School. Unfortunately, she sustained a knee injury that prevented her from continuing to dance, resulting in a period of intense depression.
In 1994, she decided to take a one-way flight to Los Angeles and attempt to make it big in the film industry, despite having barely any money to see her through each day. Living pay cheque to pay cheque, Theron’s frustration exploded in a Hollywood bank when her cheque was rejected, leading her to plead and argue with the bank teller. The customer behind Theron happened to be a talent agent, John Crosby, who gave her his business card. Since then, Theron has become one of the world’s highest-paid female stars and the recipient of an Academy Award.
Chloë Sevigny
Since the 1990s, Sevigny has found herself labelled as an ‘it girl’, known for her effortlessly cool style and performances in subversive indie films. However, she happened to stumble into her career by accident after a fashion editor stopped her on the street aged 17, asking the stylish teen to model for her magazine. Sevigny accepted before landing more modelling jobs, notably posing for X-Girl, Kim Gordon’s clothing brand. Subsequently, she appeared in a music video for Gordon’s band, Sonic Youth.
Sevigny moved to Brooklyn and began work as a seamstress before Jay McInerney spotted her around the city, spurring him to write a seven-page spread for The New Yorker on how cool she was. Yet it was meeting Harmony Korine in Washington Square Park that led to her big acting break, landing herself a role in Kids. She continued to star in more films over the decade, including Gummo, American Psycho, and Boy’s Don’t Cry. More recently, the beloved actor appeared in Bones and All and Russian Doll.
Danny Trejo
Best known for his work with Robert Rodriguez, such as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and the Spy Kids franchise, Danny Trejo has had an extensive acting career, despite never intending to join the trade. A particularly difficult childhood led Trejo into a life of drug abuse and crime. By the time he was 13, he had tried cocaine and heroin – both supplied to him by his uncle. After spending years in jail, encountering notorious figures such as Charles Manson along the way, he decided to get clean and focus his efforts on boxing.
Trejo began working with the Western Pacific Med Corp in the 1980s, assisting in the development of sober living houses. During this time, he met a man that told him how becoming a film extra would make him easy money. Hoping that working on film sets would give him more opportunities to help those in need, he signed with an agent, landing himself a role as an extra and behind-the-scenes boxing coach on the set of Runaway Train.
Jason Statham
British actor Jason Statham has made a successful career for himself as an action star, landing roles in films such as The Italian Job, The Machinist, The Expendables and the Fast and Furious franchise. Despite being one of cinema’s current most lucrative actors, Statham began his career as an athlete, competing for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games as a member of the British National Swimming Squad. After he was scouted to become a sports model while training, Statham began modelling for brands like Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and French Connection.
However, the model made ends meet by selling counterfeit jewellery and perfume on the streets of London. When director Guy Ritchie was introduced to Statham via French Connection and learnt of his black market history, he cast him in his debut feature, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, as a con artist. The pair reunited for Ritchie’s 2000 film Snatch, starring alongside high-profile actors like Brad Pitt and Benicio del Toro.
Jennifer Lawrence
You would think that an actor as successful as Jennifer Lawrence had trained for years. However, she never even finished high school. During a trip to New York aged 14, Lawrence was scouted by a modelling agent. She quickly realised that acting was her area of interest, not modelling, and she began attending cold readings. Although she was praised for her acting abilities, her mother encouraged her to continue modelling.
Lawrence persisted with her goal and dropped out of school, eventually landing a role in the pilot episode of Company Town, a show that never aired. Nevertheless, Lawrence kept going, scoring her film debut with 2008’s Garden Party. Since then, Lawrence has appeared in The Hunger Games franchise, making her the highest-grossing action heroine. She also won an Oscar for her incredible performance in Silver Linings Playbook.
John Wayne
As one of the biggest stars of the western genre, John Wayne helped to define the genre with his distinctively American machoism. He starred in over 80 westerns during his career, often working alongside John Ford. Yet the Hollywood icon never intended to be an actor – rather, a broken collarbone led him down the path to becoming a star. Wayne’s injury prevented him from continuing his college football scholarship at USC under his coach Howard Jones.
However, as a favour to Jones, who regularly gave western star Tom Mix free USC game tickets, Ford and Mix offered Wayne a job as an extra and prop boy. After director Raoul Walsh saw Wayne working behind the scenes, he gave him his first leading role in 1930’s The Big Trail. Although it was a commercial failure, Wayne propelled himself into stardom by establishing a strong friendship with Ford, receiving his breakthrough with 1939’s Stagecoach.
Johnny Depp
When Johnny Depp was 16, he dropped out of school to pursue his dreams of being a musician. He moved to Los Angeles four years later, hoping to land a record deal with his band – The Kids. They were unsuccessful and split up. However, Depp needn’t have worried. After his then-wife Lori Ann Allison introduced Depp to Nicolas Cage, the pair became friends. Cage encouraged the young musician to get into acting. It is still debatable whether Cage landed Depp an audition for Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street or whether he was simply accompanying his friend, Jackie Earle Haley.
Regardless, Depp showed up with no prior acting experience. He landed the role of Glen, the boyfriend of the main character Nancy because Craven’s teenage daughter thought that Depp was “dreamy”. From there, he became a teen idol and, subsequently, a Hollywood star.
Lana Turner
Lana Turner was one of classical Hollywood cinema’s most coveted stars, becoming known for her performances as femme fatale characters and widely regarded as an all-American sex symbol. Yet Turner was a terrific actor who stumbled into the spotlight after skipping class as a high school junior to buy Coca-Cola in a shop down Sunset Boulevard. She was spotted by The Hollywood Reporter’s founder William R. Wilkerson, who asked Turner if she’d be interested in appearing in movies. “I’ll have to ask my mother first,” she replied.
She was referred to Zeppo Marx, who introduced Turner to director Mervyn LeRoy, signing her to a $50 weekly contract with Warner Bros. According to LeRoy (via archive.org), “Her hair was dark, messy, uncombed. Her hands were trembling, so she could barely read the script. But she had that sexy clean quality I wanted. There was something smouldering underneath that innocent face.”
Marilyn Monroe
Born Norma Jeane Mortenson, Marilyn Monroe was the epitome of Hollywood glamour in the 1950s, becoming one of the most famous faces in the industry. In many ways, Monroe’s star status transformed her into a commodity and a symbol, in turn denying her the agency she is continually robbed of. Before Monroe was seen as a sex symbol, she was an aircraft factory worker, helping to assemble drones during World War II. In 1945, army photographer David Conover was sent by US Army Air Forces’ First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) to photograph female workers.
He snapped a photograph of Monroe, sporting her natural brunette hair, instantly recognising her potential as a pin-up model. After she began modelling, she dyed her hair blonde to appear more attractive, eventually making her way into the film industry.
Rosario Dawson
When Rosario Dawson was 15, she had no idea that sitting on her front porch would change her life for the better. She was spotted by photographer Larry Clark and the young Harmony Korine, who had recently been scouted by Clark to write a script about New York City’s AIDS crisis among teens. The pair thought Dawson would work well in the role of Ruby and offered her the part. Kids, Clark’s directorial debut, was highly controversial for its depiction of teenage sex, violence and drug use, although it is now considered a ‘90s cult classic.
Since then, Dawson has appeared in numerous mainstream and independent movies, including Josie and the Pussycat Dolls, Rent, Men in Black II and Death Proof. Moreover, Kids also launched the careers of Korine and fashion icon/actor Chloë Sevigny.
